Tuesday 2 June
By Robert Tuomey
I asked 25 young people what they knew about the elections on 5 June. Out of the 25 young people aged 18- 24, only 14 were registered to vote and only nine said they were going to use their vote. When I questioned the remaining nine about who they thought would win, I was told by three of them that they honestly didn’t know the difference between who was running for Europe and who was up for the local election, but that they would vote for anyone who wasn’t Fianna Fáil. Two more people said that they were not aware that there was going to be two ballet papers to choose candidates from. There were then three young people left, who were all over the age of 20, and could name some of the candidates from the parties. When I asked what happens in Europe when the candidate is elected, only one person was able to answer me and it turned out that he was a member of Young Fine Gael and had what he called a healthy interest in politics.
So really, what do the young people of the North West know about the European elections? The sad answer is very little. The questions that I was asked most by the 25 young people were about all the signs all over the county, who was for Europe and who was local, how much does it cost for these signs and who pays for them.
I recently travelled from Castlebar in Mayo to Cork city by way of bus. As you can imagine, that’s a lot of time to look out a window. From the moment, I left my house to go to the bus stop I was greeted by Declan Ganlay, Pat the Cope, Susan O Keefe, Pascal Mooney, Jim Higgins and Joe O Reilly. These faces, along with the face of every other wannabe politician, followed me to the Ennis bypass, (which seemed to be sponsored by Pascal Mooney, maybe it’s the Pascal Mooney bypass and nobody told me), but I started counting his posters on the road back and I very quickly ran out of fingers and toes. I wonder if it is something that politicians have figured out, like when you’re teaching a child to match words with pictures. In the same way, if we see someone’s face enough times with the words ‘vote number 1’, on June 5th we will all be in a hypnotic state when we go in to the polling booth and just vote for the face we saw the most of.
I can understand they want the vote but when the poster lists what order I should give the other party members my vote that makes me want to vote for the poor independent candidate who has just one poster for every 200 that the likes of Jim Higgins can have. Speaking of Jim Higgins, just two minutes from where I live, a massive billboard with a picture of Jim Higgins, Enda Kenny and Fine Gael in huge letters greets me every morning. Compare that to the Fianna Fáil posters, and on some, you would need a magnifying glass to see that they are members of Fianna Fáil and not independents.
All these posters got me thinking, so I did a little investigation: I e-mailed a couple of different signage companies and informed them that I was independently running in the elections and I wanted 400 election posters made in colour with the words vote number one and my face on the poster. I got back four different prices all in and about the region of €18 without VAT. Then the flyers that the unfortunate postman has to put in every letter box in town work out at about €50 for 2000 of them- not exactly going to break the bank, but still, who is paying for them and what happens to all the posters and flyers after 5 June? I am sure the Greens would like to know if they’re being recycled, or do the elections come just in time for bonfires night?
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